March 15, 1996, carnegie newsletter

MARCH 15,1996 401 Main Street, Vancouver. V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2289

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To CBC Re: Morningside's "Vancouver's Skid Row" 6 March 1996

To whom it may concern:

The series being broadcast on this program, picturing the Downtown Eastside as Hell's back door, is insulting and derogatory. The author, Bart Campbell, volunteers for about 8 hours a week in a local drop-in attached to St. James Anglican. He uses his literary skill to paint an extremely narrow view of this community of over 10,000 people. He has yet to acknowledge anything positive about this second-most stable neighbourhood of Vancouver, but talks as though he has seen and knows everything about the entire area.

The Downtown Eastside has a dynamic history going back to the founding of Vancouver in 1886 and has been left to its own relatively meagre devices for about the last 30 years. It is the home of the Carnegie Community Centre, an international model for such and the most successful one in the country. The Downtown Eastside Residents' Association, founded in 1973, turned the neighbourhood from being Skid Road into the Downtown Eastside by demanding that citizens living here be treated with respect. Slum/absentee landlords were forced to obey bylaws and have doors that closed, windows that opened, plumbing that worked and sprinklers in place. Housing conditions and poverty are clear indicators of the vitality of economic forces, but the Downtown Eastsider is not a stereotyped drunk, bum, lazy welfare cheat that Mr. Campbell portrays. The vast majority of residents are as honest and industrious as anywhere else; the economic disadvantages of life in the area are the only difference. There are literally a few thousand people who spend many hours a week, , some many hours a day, volunteering their time and enerby in efforts to improve all manner of circumstances 1 here. DERA has been responsible for hundreds of units of award-winning housing, has been innovative and ] resolute in obtaining the very best in the way of low-cost and affordable housing.

Mr. Campbell highlights only the negative view of poverty, drug abuse, alcoholism, fourth class existence that he takes great pains to deplore. Even the mischance of mentioning the Carnegie Library or activities in the area is done in as negative a way as possible. Local activists fought long and hard to get CRAB Park, the Four Sisters Co-op, Youth s e ~ i c e sOppenheimer , Park, Carnegie, the end of a Las Vegas casino and social housing in Woodward's. For this myopic viewpoint to be given national coverage is a sad statement on the journalistic integrity of the CBC. If PeterGzowskiwas on the job it is doubtful that this kind of yellow crap , would ever see the light of day.

I demand equal time for a myriad of people in this area to have their views aired. A series, 5 days long and fealured on Morningside, is the least that can be done to give the entire 'other' side which will, in reality, be about 95% to Campbell's 5%. An immediate response is required. There are already several agencies and community groups engaged in responses. Prepare yourselves for an avalanche.

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Respectfully submitted, PaulR Taylor Editor, Carnegie Newsletter, Treasurer & Member of the Board of Directors, Carnegie Community Centre Association; Treasurer & Member of the Board of Directors, Downtown Eastside Residents' Association; Treasurer & Co-Chair of the Board of Directors, Tenants' Rights Action Coalition; Treasurer & Member of the Board of Directors, End Legislated Poverty; Member of the Board of Directors, Four Sisters Housing Co-operative.

COMMIJNI'I'YHEALTH COMMI'I'TEE #2:

CALL fO8 WOMIWATIONS 3.

With music*dwests

7 ~ 3 0 - 1 0 : O O pm

Carrie 'e Thea&e

BIENVENIDOSTODOSIL WELCOME

On May 25, 1995 the Vancouver Health Board (VHB) designated six Community Health Committees (CHCs) within the region. The role of the CHCs is to assist and advise the Board in identifjring the health needs, concerns, and priorities of their identified geographic area. They will establish priorities and help set policy to guide the development and monitoring of local health services.

CHC #2 includes the neighbourhoods of Gastown, Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, CityGate and Grandview-Woodland. The CHC is made up of residents of each of these neighbourhoods who bring a variety of experiences and perspectives to the committee. Currently the committee has vacancies they are hoping to fill with residents from the CHC area.

Candidates should be: a resident of the CHC area interested in the health of their community experienced in & committed to community service available for significant voluntary time 19 years of age or older not employed within the health care sector If you are interested in joining CHC #2, please call Faye White at 775-1869 for an application package.

first Open CommuniC1( H d t b Committee Meeting

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"Sincethe crctivities ofthis company are a matter of public record, the purpose of this ineeti~lyis to devise tnsuns of covering our tracks in the future!"

Community Health Committee #2 is having its first open meeting on Monday, March 25, 7:OO9:00p.m. at Britannia Centre, under the library.

There will be a guest speaker - Mike Walker of the Tenants' Rights Action Coalition (TRAC) - a short hsiness meeting, and, of course, food. Come and neet your CHC members.

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HELP DESIGN A SOBERING CENTRE FOR THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE BY COMING TO A PUBLIC MEETING TO TELL US WANT YOU WANT AND NEED What you've told us you want is:

A noJ1-jl,dgn~ental, iton-institutional,sale place for a person iittoxicated with alcohol or under the iitfluence of drugs to rest aild restore until safe to leave.

NOW IT'S TIME TO GET DOWN TO DETAILS

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE 4 10 MAIN STREET THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1996 3130P.M. - 5:30 P.M. PICK UP A QUESTIONNAIRE, OR DROP IN AT FIRST UNITED CHURCH BETWEEN 10:OO A.M. AND 2:00 P.M. TUESDAY OR WEDNESDAY AND VANNCOUVER NATIVE HEALTH ON THURSDAYS. FOCUS GROUPS WITH PIZZA, COFFEE AND OTHER GOODIES ARE BEMG ORGANIZED NOW.

CALL JOY A T 681 83 65 FOR MORE DETAILS

COPIES OF THIS "SOBERING CENTRE"OUESTIONNA1RE CAN BE PICKED UP AND DROPPED OFF AT THE FOLLOWING: Raycarn Community Centre, DERA, Sheway, Vancouver Native Health, Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Y.W.C.A. Crabtree Comer, Carnegie Centre, Strathcona Community Centre, The Portland Hotel, The Neighbourhood Safety Office's, The Lookout Living Room, First United Church, The Recovery Club. The Back Alley and The Gastown Business Improvement #ssociation .

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The End of the Canada Assistance Plan On April 1, 1996, the federal Bill C-76 becomes law. It abolishes the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) with its right to income when in need, the right to adequate income, the right to appeal, and the right not to have to work for welfare. The only right maintained in Bill C-76 is the right to income assistance regardless of the province a person is from, and that right has already been trashed by the BC government.

Bill C-76 establishes a block funding mechanism called the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). Under the CHST, $7 billion in transfer payments to the provinces will be cut for health, post-secondary education and social assistance in I

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the City until January 1, 1997. As demand for the s e ~ c e sof Camegie will increase as poverty and homelessless increase, we have to make sure this Centre is here for the people who need it.

Bill C-76 is unjust. That is why Jean Swanson of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), Guy Caron of the Canadian Federation of Students

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the next three years. National standards for social assistance will be gone, and so will be one more building block of Canadian unity. In human terms, the cost of these cut-backs will be very high.

Why are our political and economic leaders trying to destroy our country? Hundreds of thousands of Canadians, many of them children, do not have enough to eat. Food Bank lines are growing, and there are now more food banks in Canada than there are McDonald's restaurants.

The public safety net is collapsing and, with the abolition of national standards for social assistance, the way is open for third world poverty in Canada on a wide scale.

The Carnegie Centre receives $526,000 per year from the Canada Assistance Plan to help run the Centre. We don't know what will happen to that funding when CAP is abolished, but we will be watching with great concern. Fortunately, the Carnegie Centre budget has been guaranteed by

(CFS), and others in the Action Canada Network will be fasting in Ottawa from March 25th to April 1st. At the same time, people will be fasting in other parts of Canada. Paul Taylor and Sandy Cameron will be among those fasting in Vancouver. Fasters will be on the steps of the Art Gallery (Robson and Hornby Streets), 11:00am to 2:00pm, from March 25th to April 1st. You are welcome to join us in solidarity at the Art Gallery.

Remember, 1996 is the United Nations International Year for the Eradication of Poverty.

Too bad our government is going in the opposite direction.

For more information, contact Paul Taylor at Carnegie (665-2289).

On April lst, End Legislated Poverty (ELP) will hold a rally protesting Bill C-76 at the Fraser Institute at 626 Bute Strreet.at 12 noon.

We ask that the Government of Canada maintain national standards for social assistance and health care, and that the $7 billion cut in transfer payments to the provinces be cancelled.

By SANDY CAMEP.OK

downtown eastside youth activmes society

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'TIME FOR ACTION" Position mmer on Caw 212.4 To Whom It May Concern:

"TIME FOR ACTION is a paper written by Ms. K. Daum, on behalf of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society. The intention of this document is to raise the reader's awareness regarding the sexual procuremmt/exploitation of children and youth. This paper highlights both federal and provincial govwment Initiative actions and in-actions, since Law 2 12.4 came into being in 1988. This document does not claim to be comprehensive in nature. It does indicate our shabby track record in protection of street-involved youth who happen to be involved in the street-level sex trade.

DEYAS has lobbied, and will continue to lobby, for effwtive legal mechanisms to protect youth and children on the street from sexual predators. i A law that would effectively deal with the men who form the 'market' the tricks or johns - is the bottom line: Without these 'consumers' there would be radical changes in the numbers of children, youth and adults involved in the street-level sex trade industry. Prostitution, and the sexual procurement of children (like all other For Sale products), is driven by the demands of the marketplace.

It seems quite clear: either we care enough to protect these children and youth now, or we pay for our negligence later. Surely the protection of children is the paramount concern. Please, let's ensure that our attitudes and laws effectively communicate this message If you buy a child or youth for sexual services, you will be dealt with as a sexual predator. As they say on the street, "Do the crime, Do the time." Now, it is only the children who really pay.

John Twvey, Executive Director

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TO THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF VANCOUVER

d world in which the

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creative spirit is alive, in which life is an adventur full of hope and joy, based rather on the impulse to constmct thaI upon the desire to retain what we possess or to seize what is possessed by others.

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Bert Russell.

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it common decencg

from Bud Osbom

your worship I am writing to attest to my wholehearted support for your radical and innovative plan announced december 7th at the council of churches meeting where I heard you say in response to a question regarding what we can do to help the teenaged prostitutes in the downtown eastside you said (and I for one applaud you for your courage) you said "TAKE THEM H O M E your worship I expected to see headlines the next day at least in the province headlines screaming your challenge MAYOR SAYS TAKE A HOOKER HOME I have been sony to see that no one has taken up your exhortation

Vancouver Native Health Society MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATIONOF CHILDREN

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1. In the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver the majority of children being sexually exploited on city streets are Aboriginal. This begs the question of whether the inaction on the part of both senior governments to deal with the problem has anyttung to do with the racial origin of these children.

2. Clearly, Sections 2 12.4 and 2 13 of the Criminal Code MUST be changed; however, Justice Minister Alan Rock's proposed amendment in Bill C- 119 will be useless, since the evidentiary onus for conviction of predators will continue to rest with children. Surely Mr. Rock, the head of Canada's largest law firm, can do better!

3. At the same time, BC Attorney-General U&dDosanjh, can claim no kudos for his foot-dragging and buck-passing. Since he became AG, not one adult predator has been charged under the existing law. He blames a weak federal law for a lack of criminal charges, but also appears to be turning a blind eye to enforcing BC's child protection laws.

4. It: hypothetically speaking, a young member of Mr. Rock's family or Mr. Dosanjh's family were discovered being sexually exploited, would something finally be done?

5. BC's Opposition Leader, Gordon Campbell (Liberal), would deal with the situation, if elected, not by lobbying the federal government to change the Criminal Code, and not by enforcing provincial child protection statutes. He has publicly stated, on Bill Good's CKNW talk show, that the solution would be to "lock up" the kids! Would he force them into coal-mining as the next step in their rehabilitation? His party [the Liberals] also proposes to change the Motor Vehicle Act to suspend driver's licenses or impound cars of people buying children provided they have been convicted previously under Section 2 12.4 of the Criminal Code. Given that there have been only two convictions in the last eight years, this proposal would be funny if it were not for the seriousness of the situation.

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I believe you should make this slogan TAKE THEM HOME the hem of your campaign for re-election I didn't realize you were such a visionary I have advocated before you more than once for the poor and powerless people who are most affected by big city development and gentrification but your admonition TAKE THEM HOME outstrips my imagination TAKE THEM HOME would truly distinguish vancouver from any other city in its response to the dispossessed fiom any other city in recorded history probably

my fears and concerns for those most vulnerable among us would be greatly relieved

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if the citv of vancouver and its citizens were s&nglY encouraged through your office to TAKE THEM HOME take home the teenaged prostitutes take home the hiv positive transgendered first nations people take home the homeless junkies take home the poor refugee cocaine dealers take home those existing in dangerous and crummy rooms take home the schizophrenics wandeaing homeless and helpless TAKE THEM HOME VANCOUVER take them home to shaughnessy take them home to kerrisdale take them home to west point grey take them home to kitsilano your worship I would be glad to contribute whatever skills I possess to promote this vision for the city of vancouver

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you can contact me at the carnegie community centre just give me the word and we will kick off your campaign right here TAKE THEM HOME

You've seen the posters, heard the ads, and you know it's happening soon. Tuesday, May 14th, 1996, is Census Day, and every person living in Canada, including persons on visas or claiming refigee status, will fill in and mail back a census questionnaire. The high quality data collected by the census is crucial for decision making by government, local businesses, and community groups. Federal transfer payments are calculated using census data and each person not

counted translates into lost funding for health care and postsecondary education.

Your personal information is protected by law and cannot be accessed by anyone outside of Statistics Canada, including other government agencies or even the police. If you have any questions, require assistance, or if you did not receive a questionnaire, there is help available to you in over 30 languages through the Census Help Line at 1-800-670-3388 (May 9- 17). Make sure your region gets its fair share by counting yourself in on Tuesday, May 14th, 1996.

ONE DAY AS I WAS SITTING IN THE BUS STATION I HEARD A VOICE CALLING MY NAME ALBERT ALBERT AND WHEN i LOOKED AROUND THERE WAS THE CUTEST GIRL iN ALL THE WORLD. THEN WE GOT TOGETHER SO i TOOK HER FOR LUNCH SHE HAD SOUP AND I HAD A SALAD AFTER LUNCH I TOOK HER HOME AND WE KISSED AND KISSED THEN WE GOT MARRYED AND THAT IS THE STORY OF MY LIFE ALBERT ANTHONY.

Social Studies Class This interesting and exciting class was started on February 7th. Our special guest speakers have included Sandy Cameron, Bob Stirti, John Shayler and Sarah Evans.

Another highlight was having a field trip to the Vancouver Archives and the Museum, where they had a large number of photos of Vancouver. It was a beautiful day and we had lunch outdoors.

We usually work in pairs, and John and I are doing Images of the Downtown Eastside. We've toured the area and took many photos, trying to research the history of each building.

If you wish to see the complete results of all the class work, come to the special display in Carnegie's Art Gallery on the 3rd floor, the week of April 7th.

By IRENE SCHMIDT

Finding a high a grasping it, never knowing the danger you hold until it's too late.. God is on your side if you can hold it and then let it go, without ever seeing it again.

An addiction that can't be explained or expressed except within yourself which only your soul and nobody else hears.

I'm hoping I never want it again; a high that brought me somewhere else - a place that never brings one W e r in life I put the needle in my vein never knowing..never feeling what I was about to do.

Name withheld by request.

Editor I'm back and am I pissed off. 1don't know or understand how many people OD but I do understand DEAD. The NDP government should build a place out in the valley,a centre to help addicts away from the temptation of the streets.

They could sell some of the unused land in Vancouver and buy a safe place outside the shooting galleries of the East End. The cry has also gone out from United We Can to be included in the VIP (Volunteer Initiative Program). Over 95% of the binners here are really trylng to help themselves; if it wasn't for them & us, there would be a lot more garbage around.

Welcome back Rene, the far-out Neil Young style musician. Welcome also to Carl ~ a c ~ o n a l who does videos on Friday nights in the Theatre.

Why doesn't the City care about people who care about the city?

Trashhopper

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In The Dumpster Greetings fellow Binners and Binnerettes.

As I write this I'm at home wearing the cowboy hat that Tom Lewis gave me on my birthday. I can't help but remember my pal as 1bin. I sense him guiding my binning as I keep finding things only Tom could find.

Just the other day I was in a certain bin and found a packsack with cans and a wicked-looking knife.

This has to be said: I'm sony to the person I beat up so bad, but you shouldn't have insulted my friend by saying 1sleep with her.. She is my best female fiiend..I would never even think that.

Mr. McBinner forgot last issue's deadline and apologizes. Sorry also to Trashhopper, who wanted to express his opinion on some pressing matters.Thanks to Bud for inspiting this.

As for inspiration, one might want to check out our newest art gallery called "Gabby Gachet" at 88 E.Cordova. I don't know from art, except like Tora does, but it's a friendly, open place. Poetry!: Spring has sprung. The Grass has rizz. 1wonder

where the birdies is? .

The bird is on the wing! Isn't that absurd? I always thought the wing was on the bird...

The other &y I was doin' not bad, got some stuff and was stit so 1 could make a prearranged pick-up of bottles and cans, when 1 heard "Help! Help me!"

Being streetwise, Mr. McBimer was ready for this. Here was a four-foot-nothing lady in a bin, and it had been emptied so she couldn't get out.

Seemed she'd thrown something valuable in and went in after it. I jumped in and boosted her out.

She gave me $10 for saving her. DO-JAY! Beat that Tom Lewis! Although Tom once jumped into a bin and into a bucket of shit...

Please fellow binners, be respectfbl and nice when working. Thanks to careless people we are all losing out. Keep it clean.

TO BiN IT SO BE TO BE IS TO BIN TO RIDE MY BIKE AGAIN I GRIN, FOR FREEDOM IS WITHIN THE BIN.

By Mr. McBinner

Hey people, a bit of advice for binners and an open question.. maybe someone will have an answer to it...

The advice goes along the lines of caring for one's health. Yeah, "there's weird stuff in them that bins." False accents aside, the serious part of this advice is for binners and dumpster divers like myself to beware the hazards of medical waste for obvious reasons. But oddly, staying out of or away h m bins near m d c a l facilities doesn't seem to be the answer. I've discovered the aforementioned waste in bins outside restaurants, outside bars, and even in more industrial areas, away from the strategically located and obvious ambulance dispatch places.

Question: Where is this wasie comingflom?

Are there guidelines andlor City bylaws governing the disposal of these kinds of materials? The practice of putting those orange "Biohazard warning labels on garbage bags is a good one, that's for sure, and has kept a few discarded bags out of my own hands. But the question remains how this stuff is getting fiom medical facilities to places and dumpsters quite removed fiom places one would expect to find it and avoid?

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I Every day I see a flock of birds. When they are in flight they are beautiful. So many birds.. it makes you wonder how they get fed. If people don't feed them they may perish. There is cement and no bugs and no food. People feed them breed but that is no good for the birds but they eat it myway.

They have no food.

Doris Leslie

Yeah, here's a weird little scenario for ya: some demented fieak sees anyone who actually does this kind of survival practice as their personal demons and goes around putting unmarked bags of medical waste in bins he or she knows binners frequent....

Well, nonsense aside, it's a serious topic binners should be wary and cognizant of. Or, just because it's a Bar's dumpster doesn't mean there are no greasy little surprises down there.

Oddly enough, up until a couple of months ago, this was a rare occurrence but the times seem to be changin'. Heads up, binners.

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By MARK OAKLEY (Also Known As (aha.) 'The Heretic ') PS: If there actually is some little freak goin' around conducting a private biological warfare battle with his or her personal demons, get some help with your problem, eh? and leave peaceful nobodies like w alone. I mean, I've never been arrested or charged for any crime; I've never hurt anybody. Take your transference neurosis and put its energy into a hobby maybe. I write songs; maybe you could too. It helps.

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THE KEY IS FOUND IN LOVE It is not necessary to mourn someone who has found love, who has found fulfillment, and who has found purpose and progressed towards it's destination. It is not necessary to mourn this one, no matter how brief is their life, for love is the spirit that carries them as they journey towards paradise.

Mourn rather for the one who cannot love, the one others find difficult to love, for love is a message this one does not understand, a struggle that bruises their soul. For this one, death will be an escape fiom darkness where light only tempts and taunts, a place where love mocks and erodes until it kills the spirit.

It is not necessary to mourn someone who has walked in peace and harmony with nature and has kept in tune with the rhythms of love along its path., This one hears the singing of the birds, the harmony in the wind. This one reaches out and feels the rain and enjoys its caress.

But mourn the one who walks in despair and sadness, running to catch up with life, unable to understand nature whose rhythms seem confused. This one hears the noisy birds and shoos them away, feels the wind and curses its sting. This one reaches out to feel the rain but it slithers through their fingers and flees their touch.

It is not necessary to mourn someone who has experienced eternity in their soul, for they are in contact with their creator, their heart rejoicing in their God. But mourn the one who fears death, who is uncertain of their journey's end but imagines the darkness there to be worse than the darkness on earth. Death is what they seek and death is what they fear.

Dance for the joy in this life. Let nothing and no one interfere witb your dance. It is your dance and not for others to understand.

Let love be our goal and nature be your soul-mate.

Learn to be free and let social bondages fall away like broken chains.

Connect with the creator for you are part of creation.

Be you, let others be themselves, and do not try to capture them and mold them to suit yourself for if you do, like a fire without a flame their spirit will die.

Dance in this life and learn to blend your rhythms with those of others.

The key is found in love, Victoria Peltz

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Do Rumours Have Some Truth?

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I heard a rumow. I would like to have the facts to show the truth of it, yet my intuition says it is true.

I heard there were Ministry of Social Services employees entering people's homes without the owner's knowledge. The homes invaded are in the hotels, at this point. It is said employees of the Police were involved only where arrest warrants were issued and they've then entered the rooms.

(Tke rumour gained momentum when a Ministry employee chose to brag about it in the presence of several people. - Editor) The thoughts I've had, and why I believe the rumour, are: a) MSS employees are accompanying the police in hopes of finding proof the target is making extra money. The words I've heard to describe this tactic are "Penny-wise, pound-foolish."

Arrest people for dealing, prostitution and stealing and the Ministry of the AttorneyGeneral will spend a minimum of $20,000per person. Then the target won't be collecting welfare and MSS will be saving $12,000per conviction, provided each person convicted gets a 2-year sentence ($6000/yr). b) Logic says the few people actually performing these tasks (directives?) are doing it because they fear for their jobs. In their minds the thought repeats: 'In order for me to continue getting a regular pay cheque, I must perform according to the job description.' I can understand this. The fear that we, North Americans, have placed on not getting stuff is amazing. How our society preaches that we

need lots of things to be happy, content and 13. successful is insane. The level of frustration the 'employed' experience, trying to live up to that artificial expectation, would kill my spirit.

There is no way they're happy because you can never have it all. I know how easy it is to fall into that lifestyle Erom my time in Toronto.

In my opinion, our new premier, Glen Clark, is looking at life in BC through numbers. He believes he is the ruler; the other day he said one has to tell people what one's intentions are and make them understand. He's the boss right now and his colleagues are bosses too.The worst case scenario would be if he and his fiiends give themselves over to doing the

rebbby rhe poor as ~ ~ r"l l .

bidding of the real bosses. Of course there art always those who will not do the meanest tasks, but there are those who will always keep their pay cheques by emulating the boss.

It is a strange world I live in and nearly every day the adage "May you live in interesting times" rings The key thing I do, in this time of a Police State developing, is to be aware. A continuous lookingaround-my-shoulder when I'm in the street; careful listening to what is being said to me and to others.

(Yes,I overhear conversations. It was one of the first things I did as a kid and now I have nearly 40 years practice.)

I know anything is possible and keeping an eye on the traffic0 has become an absolute must. I can't say for sure what is going to happen in the next ten years, but being aware is what will save my butt.

By ALISON CAMERON

Accumulations are all increments of doubt there is of place. There are wires wonentiate to conviction and lines but we are beyond not themselves, you understand, but helpless them, beyond music, its difficulty others of dream and elipsis of limbs, the colored suppositions who e~rapolatethemselves from among that disperse like melodies these arch and haunted connivances the music between us the difficult, sequestered thing which makes speech difficult place became, a dismal grid hearing an unreliable fire of weather and machinery on the wings of speech, a tinfoil flag mocked by the cadences of estrangement which could mean anything crazy with rain and allusion a swarm of frozen gestures between us each moment a quarantined and jaundiced a mile of shoes vertigo of sight, the ruin of youth's the broad victory of things golden and stupid vigor just staying there, turned away from us slanted toward hereafter we started at the edges of trivia worked our way thru the glum Dan Feeney sunday face of things shattered plate of sky traffic a thin, attenuated memory of Ontario Novemeber day opening like the echo of an ovation on these ordinances of hunger and ineqlicability these strangely colored yards heaped to some ornate, dull, sculpturesque disinclination

in abrupt corners where e:husted fantasies slump and dampen I find two rain-soaked letters

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Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is a community of more than 10,000 people. There are writers, reporters, artists, actors, poets, chess masters, voracious readers, composers, musicians, people with IQ's way up there in the clouds. The people of the downtown eastside are the heart and the guts of the city.

Loggers in the area during the turn of the century built skids, which were row after row of greased logs and planks embedded in the soft earth, and mules, oxen and horses hauled logs along these skid roads.

The term skidway originated between 1875 and 1880 and is inclusively a west coast term that arises fiom the lumber trade. The people way, way up there in the downtown eastside are highly respected for their generosity and sense of community, loyalty and justice.

"To have no voice is to have no power!"

Where is the grassroots literacy and education program in the Vancouver School Board's Learning Centre at Carnegie?

Despite the best efforts of the Learning Centre staff, the School Board has been unable to deliver a basic literacy program -just as the need for such a program becomes ever-greater. Whenever the Carnegie Association has asked School Board management to come up with a literacy program that responds to the needs of the people living in this community, we have been told they can't do it.

This is a sad commentary on one of Carnegie Centre's most exciting programs. When Carnegie's first director, Jim McDowell, said the words "to have no voice is to have no power," he helped open the Centre back in 1980 and ushered in a new era in the Downtown Eastside.

Four years later, in 1984, the new director, Nancy Jennings started the Learning Centre on the third floor. She knew that people need to be able to read and write if they are to have the voice they

need to have power over their own fives and in their society.

A lot of things in the Downtown Eastside have changed since then. There are more younger people in the neighbourhood. More women, too.

The street scene is more intense, as cocaine and heroin get better and cheaper. More and more people are using drugs. Meanwhile condos sprout up all over. Housing in the Downtown Eastside gets scarcer, more expensive. The need for people in this neighbourhood to have voice and to have power is greater than ever!

The Learning Centre has changed, too.

Back in 1984, the Learning Centre had no paid staff. It ran entirely on volunteer power. A year or so later, King Edward College took on one staff person. Later on, another person was added half time and for a number of years, the Learning Centre ran on the power of 1 112 staff and many, many volunteers and students. It was open to anyone and everyone who wanted to learn

something, whether it was how to read and write or to leaf through the well-used set of the Encylopedia Britannica that sat on the bookshelf In the late 1980s, the funding system for adult education changed and the Vancouver School Board took over funding the Learning Centre.

Today, there 18 paid staff in the Carnegie Learning Centre all Vancouver School Board employees. Under the provincial funding formula, the School Board receives around $900,000 per year for its program at Carnegie. It puts back only two-thirds of that into the Learning Centre program, most of that in salaries. Meanwhile, two thirds of all registrations in theLearning Centre are by people who live in other parts of the city.

And the School Board will not run a program nor provide staff for something unless it is fundable.

What makes a program fundable is the number of "contact hours" it gets. Contact hours are provided by students, who come into the Learning Centre and register in a program or class. Once the student is registered, each hour he or she spends in the Centre is noted down and becomes part of the statistics. The statistics the School Board gets from the students are turned over to the Ministry of

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Education in Victoria, which sends money in return.

In order to make the contact hours that their statistics, and their money, depend on, the School Board has to make sure students are registered in courses that lead to finishing grade 12. And you can only register if you have proof of your social insurance number.

In place of a grassroots literacy program, the School Board offers a drop-in that depends on the contact hours of students. That means each and every student has to be registered to get access to School Board resources, staff and materials.

Otherwise they're out of luck.

Many of the people who most need literacy education are automatically excluded fiom the School Boards program because of their requirements. And some of the most effective and creative kinds of literacy programs are also

excluded because the School Board says they don't lead to Grade 12. For example, Creative Writing programs are considered to be among the most useful tools in literacy instruction everywhere.

Yet the School Board will not provide staff or other resources for creative writing classes. They say it won't lead to grade 12, which means the Ministry of Education won't give money for it.

Because of the rigid guidelines the School Board is imposing on the Learning Centre at Carnegie, we are losing some of the most interesting and positive programs that were developed here over the years. We have also been stifled in our attempts to move the Learning Centre into the streets to begin offking programs to the people who won't use a formal centre.

It's time for the Association to begin looking at the kind of program that will respond to the needs of the Downtown Eastside community. It must be a program that is created here by and for the people of this community. What we don't need is a program that is created by administrators and bureaucrats at the offices of the Vancouver School Board and the Ministry of Education for people fiom all over the Lower Mainland.

The Learning Centre was started at Camegie in 1984 because the literacy needs of the Downtown Eastside were so immense. With this in mind, the Carnegie Association is asking the School Board to change its program at Camegie and to work in a real partnership with the community.

We want the School Board to recognize how important the volunteers tutors are and to put some resources into training them and treating them with respect. Most of all, we want the School Board to work with us to provide a grassroots literacy program that speaks first to the people and the needs of this community. We think we can develop a truly innovative and creative program unlike any other in the countq.

By JEFF SOMMERS To this end, the following was discussed and approved unanimously:

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Draft Proposal for Discussion on the Learning Centre

The intent of this document is to stimulate discussion and to provide a way of proceeding that acknowledges different approaches to addressing many of the problems that we perceive with our current Learning Centre program. The proposal suggests actions that we believe will result in the Learning Centre being firmly rooted in the community and directed by the community centre. It also acknowledges that the VSB cannot satisfj. all of the demands bemg asked of it and allows the VSB to assist the community in developing their Learning Centre.

The Carnegie Community Centre Association and tbe Social Planning Depmtrnent of the City of Vancouver are committed to providing the highest quality literacy programming to the residents of the Downtown Eastside. The focus in our Learning Centre on more traditional approaches to literacy, the heavy emphasis on ESL over the past two years, the large eakhment area that the VSB insists on for the Centre, and the lack of a well developed tutor training program, has hindered the Learning Centre's ability to respond creatively and quickly to the needs of the local community.

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To address the concerns with the delivery of literacy programs in the Downtown Eastside community and to begm work toward making the Carnegie Learning Centre a truly unique community based program we propose the fo~owingactions:

I. That the Camgie Centre state the mandate for our Learning Centre be to save the Downtown Esslside neighbourhood with a primary focus on the low income community @owntown Eastside includes Strathcona). That the VSB view the Carnegie Learning Centre as a m a l l and pique community program operated by the Camegie Community Centre with assistance h m the Vancouver School Board.

2. That the VSB assist the Carnegie Centre by contributing a d&ng level of 2 staff at all times to maintain the Literacy Drop In program. Coordination and development of the Learning Centre program will be the responsibility of the Carnegie Education programmer and the s W team in the Learning Centre.

Administration and supervision of VSB staff be the responsibility of the VSB. Administration and supervision of non VSB staff to be the responsibility of the appropriate organization depending on where funding comes fbm. Hours of operation of the Learning Centre to be maintained fiom 9:OOam to 9:00pm.

Monday to Friday.

3. In view of the proposed decreased VSB staffing levels remove the Vancouver School Board administrative function from Camegie.

4. That there be an expectation on all Learning Centre staff to do outreach wok.

5. That volunteers be recognized as the backbone of the Learning Centre and a solid in-house literacy volunteer training program be put in plase using people with specific expertise in education as well as community resource people. If the Vancouver School Board cannot fund this funds will be sought elsewhere.

6. To develop the Carnegie Centre Community Computer Program the City of Vancouver provide new computers to the computer room fieeing up the VSB computers for use in other centres.

7. That structured classes grow out of the drop-in program and that extra instructors be requested when appropriate for specific areas such as Native Issues, Creative Writing, Social Studies, Community ESL, Women's discussion group, Welfare Rights etc.

8. ?hat firrther development of the Learning Centre program be decided through collaboration between the Camegie Association and Cay Staff and the VSB where appropriate. AU hiring committees will have equal numbers of Carnegie Association, City and where appropriate VSB representatives.

9. That Carnegie Staff and the Library Committee of the Board work with the Camegie Vancouver Public Library &to develop an extensive Liteaacy collection and more joint programming.

10. This structure is to be initiated by April 1, 1996.

Approved unanimously by the CCCA Education Committee meeting March 12, 19%

Your NHG meets every 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:00 pm, at Strathcona Community Centre.

Next meeting: April 16th. Meetings feature guest speakers, Community Health Committee and Vancouver Health Board updates, and neighbourhood issues refreshments served, of course. If you'd like to get on the NHG mailing list, show up and sign in, or give Ken and Yuet-Ian a call at 682-3088. We're now located in the PRIDE Centre, 1st floor, 425 Carrall St., Van.

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Well, ladies, if you did not propose to the man in your life on February 29, you will have to wait another four years.

There are so many versions of what Leap yea^ is about. This is the one I like best: In 45 BC, Julius Caesar fixed the solar year at 365 days and six hours. At the end of four years the extra six hours each year added up to a full day so in his revised calendar, named Julian after him, he announced that every fourth year would have

monthly assistance for social services to give recipients? I think it should be $1,000 a month to each recipient to help him or her find a job!

Right now, with $500 a month, you pay $325 for rent and have only $1 75 left for food.

To job hunt you need busfare. To job hunt you need decent clothes. To job hunt you need food in your belly to perform well in an interview.

Some people will say: "If people get $1,000 in monthly assistance, working people will also go on income assistance." This idea is garbage! Most people work to help their community, to create, to be active and for their self-esteem. Money plays a 1 very small part.

I am proud to tell people where I work. "Yes," I I say, "I work at the Carnegie Centre."

I When I was on social assistance I was i embarrassed to tell people that I did not have a job. Here I was, an employable male, doing "nothing". Thank you Have a nice day.

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Mikey Guy, a door-jam

366 days, adding the extra day in February.

Once astronomers 'discovered' the earth actually takes 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes to completely orbit the sun, Pope Gregory MI1 abolished the Julian calendar and replaced it with the new style.

He ordered that Leap Year be omitted in all centenary years except those divisible by 400. The 366 day year probably came to be called Leap Year because, for a long time, English courts did not recognize February 29 and the date was leaped over in the records.

By IRENE SCHMIDT

Editor, Just a little note that 1would like you to insert in the Carnegie Newsletter. About two days ago I was the recipient of a motorized scooter through the Four Sisters Housing Co-op Office, to use before and after my hip replacement surgery.

Strictly a loaner, of course, but what a joy to use!

It used to take me a half hour to walk two blocks to Main & Hastings using my walker. Now I can do it in five minutes.

So I would like to express my deepest tholnks to the person who donated the machine to be used by people living in the Downtown Eastside.

Special thanks to Margaret Prevost, Don MacPherson and Sandy MacKeigan.

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Sincerely yours, Neil North.

poem-speech given at saint barnabus anglican church in new westminster 1 march 1996

my name is bud osborn and it is an honour for me to be asked to' speak here today on this day of recognition for the volunteers at saint barnabus my own present volunteer experience involves my activity as a member of the board of directors of the carnegie community centre in the downtown eastside of Vancouver the carnegie centre is a remarkable place unique in my experience a true community centre and therefore absolutely vital to the poor people of the downtown eastside the carnegie centre is open 365 days a year and would not open up on any of those days nor would it survive and operate one more day were it not for volunteers more than 300 volunteers keep that facility going with all of its myriad and diverse activities 300 poor people essentially running their own community centre and if anyone here would like a kind of guided tour of the carnegie centre please contact me and I would be happy to show you around the place besides being a board member I volunteer on the carnegie newsletter which is published twice a month and the wide readership it receives within the downtown eastside demonstrates that it truly is a community publication and it comes out like I said twice a month and the only problem each issue is lack of space for all the material the editor would like to print but what I have been mostly about for nearly a year now is to by to bring into the consciousness of people both within and outside the downtown eastside the grave crisis the area faces f?om gentrification such a polite t a m for ravenous upscale greed bent on destroying my community I have also tried to emphasize that indeed it is a real community being overwhelmed a community of the poor which is a spiritual gift to the city and not a ghetto being improved by upscale development

I began my work believing there is another word to be spoken in ow public lives besides economic imperatives and I believe the word to be spoken is resucrection and hope of community of new life but as it appeared that day on golgotha so it appears right now in my community that it is a community on the cross all the promise and hope and ambition of the disciples has come to a horrible end but as the following sunday reveals to us though the powers of the world seem to have the last word we know better god always has the last word and it is an amazing word an astonishing word resurrection new life in the midst of death and failure and that faith which was given to the disciples is the faith which we as volunteers among the poorest and most powerless and members of the poor and powerless must live in these dark days of our passion volunteer the word in my little dictionary means free will god's unique gift to us fiee will to freely choose to become the servant of those most in need which is what jesus did jesus the perfect volunteer personally I would not even have a life today were it not for volunteers the first and most important in my life being my grandmother a christian woman with a rock-like faith a faith of which she never spoke but lived a major reason why she never spoke of her faith is because she lived in a family whose motto was self-will run riot I would not have survived without my gandmother had she not of her own fiee will provided me with a refbge a shelter with kindness and concern when I was a child to briefly illustrate how bad things were by the time I was 5 years old I had twice tried to kill myself and things didn't get any better except where my grandmother was concerned otherwise I lived in chaos violence drunkenness and abuse but my grandmother gave me in her home

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and there is no one more needed more valuable greater today than a volunteer among the poor and the powerless and no one whose service will be more crucial tomorrow for the lives of those most afllicted and most vulnerable than the volunteer because this is a time of war just as was jesus' time it is not the roman empire we are faced with but a global transnational economic agenda which is so powerfbl already as to be bearing down on my community of the poor in the downtown eastside to destroy it to scatter the people to make rekgees of them homeless people in north arnerica are refugees of a war and this economic agenda is bearing down in new westminster the united church before christmas issued a statement naming this for what it is a war on the poor a recent book by a highly respected american sociologist is entitled the war against the poor and in canada the free trade agreement which is the dominant economic determinant in ow lives requires canada's social services to be brought in line with those of the united states and if you would understand what is happening to social services here you must keep that in mind because there is no bottom line for social services in the united states and after bill c-76 becomes law april first (it is curious few cancadians seem to be aware this bill has already been passed) anyway after april first the provinces will no longer be obliged to render social services to anyone and as the canadian historian and social critic sandy Cameron has recently written "bill c-76 is a betrayal of the social contract that canadians won after the second world war" this is the same kind of thing the states have been doing the federal government stops giving money for health education and social services to the states or provinces and leaves it up to them up to their ftee will to provide these things except state and provincial governments claim to have no free will in matters like this they are governed by economic imperatives

all that to say the poor are going into exile the transnational corporations have written off hundreds of millions of human beings globally and many millions in north and south america human beings the corporations know will never be employees or consumers actually the rational tendency of this economic system requires the elimination of social services and this is a global phenomenon which can be and is witnessed in this very room and on the streets of new west and this war on the poor employs the increasingly centralized news media to dehumanize poor people tarring welfare recipients with accusations of h u d while the real fraud goes on in government and corporate board rooms I am taking so much time with this war in order to express how valuable how needed are volunteers because if not volunteers who is going to feed clothe visit comfort, and provide a refuge for jesus in those who are poorest and most aflElicted and who else is even going to be looking for or recognizingjesus where he can be found where he said he could be ministered to in those most rejected abandoned and despised those most like jesus in the world

if there are not volunteers with a rock-like faith there will be no one to stand with suffer with and care for those the world denies

I would like to close with a story told by eugene peterson a remarkably wise man who teaches at regent college I attended a course he gave last summer on david it was really a course in what it means to be a human being in relationship with god in this world he told the david and goliath story that day in the valley philistines on one side the jews on the other goliath huge ferocious powerfir1 goliath paralyzing the jews into inaction terrorizing and mocking them

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goliath filled everyone's mind that day in the valley he dominated the consciousness on both sides he filled the philistines with an easy confidence until david showed up david a little guy a shepherd a poet a servant not even supposed to be there 'what are you doing here?' he was asked 'you're not a warrior' but david looked at the situation then he ran right at goliath went to a stream knelt down in prayer without any armor without a sword and selected a stone david ran right at goliath and brought him down and as eugene peterson said david's mind was the only one not dominated by goliath david's mind was filled with god david was the only one in touch with reality in the valley that day &vid was not required to be there he was not a soldier Bud Osbom he was a volunteer T

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Does discrimination, bigotry, racism and brutality exist in BC against people who are economically marginalized? More importantly, do these things exist in the downtown eastside?

Does punishing poor people somehow lead to the seats of power in Victoria?

As economic forces lead to an increase in the pain and suffering of many people across this province, do landlords, merchants and moneyed people roll back prices on goods and services? Did the various levels of government waive taxes on those most affected?

It is draconian that those most affected by cuts and overwhelming want have to shoulder the heaviest burden - the bigotry, discrimination and prejudice. The hypocrisy of government is to deny

that these are direct consequences of their abuse, their corruption in serving those moneyed people.

The rights of downtown eastside citizens are abused. We are made to feel that we are at fault for our economic insufliciency, while a variety of systemic barriers - landmines - await us at local Ministry and Employment offices. Most times you feel inclined to apologize and leave feeling mildly embarrassed having had the audacity to encurnbrage this or that employer/social worker.

Historically, punishing the poor has backfired. I am not the problem here. The soiution does not lie in increasing the economic hardship of the already economically marginalized.

By DENNIS MAURICE

J n c e n s o r e d CONFESSIONS OF A BACHELOR They d i d n ' t t e l l me t h a t when I grew l ~ p , u n l e s s I had a w i f e o r h o u s e m a i d , ; h o s t s would h a u n t my l i v i n g q u a r t e r s md d e p o s i t i n d e s c r i b a b l e mucky s t u f f lround t h e b a s e o f my b a t h r o o m s i n k f a u c e t s and around t h e back o f t h e t z o i l e t bowl. What a t e r r i b l e t h i n g Lo d o t o somebody.

A l s o , when I ' m o u t o r s l e e p i n g , some unknown p e r s o n o r p e r s o n s s p r a y my bookshelves w i t h thousands of d u s t p a r t i c l e s , a n d h i d e my f a v o r i t e book o r pen on m e .

These unkind acts p e r i o d i c a l l y c a u s e me t o a t t e m p t t o d o what I a n d my male , m c e s t o r s are n o t g e n e t i c a l l y c a p a b l e o f d o i n g - housework.

It t a k e s t h o u s a n d s of y e a r s o f pract i c e t o l o o k a t a messy room a n d h a v e i t s p i c & s p a n i n less t h a n a h a l f h o u r w i t h o u t g e t t i n g a t e n s i o n headache t r y i n g t o f i g u r e o u t t h e b e s t place t o put everything. i e : What u s e d t o b e t h e l i v i n g room c a r p e t g r a d u a l l y becomes a v a s t sea w i t h d o z e n s o f i s l a n d s made up of books, s h o e s , c a s s e t t e t a p e h o l d e r s , r u l e r s , i m p o r t a n t p a p e r s I d o n ' t want t o l o s e s i g h t o f , a n d small t o o l s I want t o k e e p handy.

When i t f i n a l l y comes down t o being a dangerous a d v e n t u r e t o walk t o t h e c o u c h , I r o l l up my m e n t a l s l e e v e s and a t t e m p t t o p u t t h e mess i n order. '

I r e a c h down and p l u c k o u t o n e o f t h e i s l a n d s , a n d s p e n d t h e n e x t two m i n u t e s i n deep thought t r y i n g t o determine t h e most p e r f e c t p l a c e I c a n p u t i t , w i t h o u t h a v i n g t o s e a r c h f o r i t , i f I n e e d It! A f t e r a b o u t t h e t h i r d i s l a n d , my mind g e t s g r o g g y a n d t u r n s t o mush.

I sit down on t h e c o u c h t o r e c u p e r a t e .

I l o o k down o n t h e i n e r t o b j e c t s t r y i n g t o d e c i d e on t h e i r r e s p e c t i v e f a t e s , f e e l i n g l i k e some w e a r y god i n t h e clouds.

T h i s h a s b e e n g o i n g o n f o r a l l my a d u l t l i f e , and t h e o n l y s a l v a t i o n I c a n see f o r mankind i s t o i n s i s t t h a t t h e l a w s g u a r a n t e e a handsome m o n t h l y wage t o h o u s e w i v e s , s o t h a t t h i s n o b l e and very important occupation w i l l once a g a i n b e a t t r a c t i v e t o t h o s e who are t r u l y c a p a b l e of d e a l i n g w i t h its highl y complicated i n t r i c a c i e s .

I f our s o c i e t y t r e a t e d t h e housewife as t h e v i r t u a l Goddess t h a t s h e i n d e e d i s , w e j u s t m i g h t be a b l e t o s u r v i v e a s a h e a l t h y world.

G a r r y G u s t 1996

PART 1

The basic elements

Mayor Owen and Council ln j~@t of recent actions taken by the City, the Carnegie Community Centre Association and the Carnegie Action Project have decided that we will no longer participate in city-sponsored planning processes.

We have taken this step for two reasons. First, we are dismayed at the City's persistent efforts to carve up the Downtown Eastside into zoning areas and then designate these areas as neighbourhoods, thus erasing our

community from the map of Vancouver. It seems evident to most Downtown Eastsiders that, despite the avowed intentions of assorted planners, politicians and developers, the agenda is to push our community farther mt,into a smaller and smaller area. We do not want our participation in so-called community processes to be used to legitimate an agenda for the Downtown Eastside that is destructive to the community.

Second, the City's actions with regard to the VanCity project on the 300-block West Pender have confumed ill have any effect. that we can no longer be sure that the City even wants our input or, if offered, whether it w At a Council meeting in December, individuals and members of organisations throughout the Downtown Eastside community urged you to allocate funds to help finance social housing in the Woodward's building.

Instead, in what seems to be a behind-thescenes deal, funding has been allocated instead to VanCity for a project about which no one in the community was consulted.

Clearly, our participation in City-sponsored processes has minimal, if any, effectiveness. We can no longer see a point in attending endless rounds of meetings if what we say and feel is disregarded time after time.

We will not participate in any of these processes until such time as the City is prepared to accept a vision of the Downtown Eastside as a neighbourhood that is congruent with the long-standing community here. We arc ready to meet to discuss the issue of the boundaries, but we are not a bunch of zoning boundaries and refke to be treated that way. We are a community and a neighbourhood.

Sincerely, Muggs Sigurgehon President, Carnegie Community Centre Association CC: Central Area Planning, Social Planning, City Housing Centre [bureaucrats] DERA, DEYAS, Ray-Cam. Native Health, Strathcona Community, Lookout [pres. & directors.]

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DOWNTOWN STD CLINIC 219 Main; Monday Friday, 1Oa.m. 6p.m.

EASTSIDE NEEDLE EXCHANGE 221 Main; 9a.m. 8p.m. everyday YOUTH Needle Exchange Van - on the street every night, 6p.m.

2p.m. (except Mondays, 6p.m. midnight) ACTIVITIES SOCIETY

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1995 DONATIONS P a u l a R.-$20 Diane M.-$25 C e c i l e C.-$12 Libby D.-$25 Wm. B.-$25 Nancy H.-$16 L i l l i a n H.-$40 L i s a E.-$8 Sonya S.-$200 L o m e T.-$50 E t i e n n e S.-$15 Me1 L.-$20 A.Withers -$20 S a r a D.-$16 R o s i t c h -$I6 C o l l e e n E.-$16 Kettle F.S.-$16 Bruce 5.-$30 Hazel M.-$16 B i l l s.-$2 J o y T. -$20 Ray -$I2 Bea F.-$30 Bruce -$4 F r a n c i s -$50 C h a r l e y -$25 The Anonymous -$166.50

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NEWSLETTER THE NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION

Diane M - $2 0 Jerome -$2 CEEDS -$50 Susan s .-$30 DEYAS - $ l o 0 B r i g i d R.-$30 Amy E.-$20

Articles represent the views of individual contributor and not of the Association.

Submission Deadline for the next issue: 28 March Thursday

NEED HELP?

Downtown Eastside Residents' Association can help you with: * any welfare problem *information on legal rights *disputes with landlords *unsafe living conditions *income tax *UIC problems *finding housing *opening a bank account Come into the Dera office at 9 East Hastings St. or phone us at 682-0931.

DERA HAS BEEN SERVING THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE FOR 23 YEARS.

The rain is slashing criss-cross patterns against the grimy sidewalk on Jamaica Avenue, but inside Pop's Pizza Palace, the kid doesn't notice. He stares into the window, smoothing down his ducktail in the reflection.

"Listen, Bratface," he tells his doofus little sister, "1 switch those shakers and I don't give a good flying fart what Pop thinks."

Bratface is quaking, but the kid is in no mood to listen to reason. He's fed up with all the phonies of the world, and he's going to stick it to them, real boss.

"Salt into sugar, sugar into salt," he intones the holy mantra.

Pop approaches the kid with caution, the red and blue light from the neon pizza sign outsider throwing a checkerboard across his bald head.

"What for you wrecka my place?"

"Can it pops," the kid shoots back at him, spitsmoothing his sideburns. "Get back behind the counter."

The old man slinks away, defeated. He just doesn't know what's come over the youth of today... a bunch of J.D's! Okay, when he was a teenager, they used to put bags of dog stink on people's stoops and set them on fire, but at least they didn't talk back when they got caught.

A suit with a brushcut walks in from the factory across the street. He wants a slice of the Special no pineapple, extra pepperoni.

The kid throws a nickle in the jukebox and hits B7 - In The Still of the Night, boss hit No. I .

"Watch this," he tells Bratface. She is sobbing quietly now, chewing on a napkin to stifle her little bleats. She knows better than to draw attention, or she will draw one raw noogie.

Adjusting his collar to maximum extension, the kid slouches over to where the suit is. The Five Satins are croon in^ so boss. Sha-doot-in-do-he-do

sha-doot-in-do-be-do. He makes the switch, putting the sugar in the salt shaker and vice-versa, repeating the holy mantra under his breath.

The suit smiles at him. "No school today?"

"Holy day - All the nuns gotta pray."

Pop delivers the slice. The suit picks up the shaker, squints at it. The kid flexes his arms, testing his biceps, like he's working out with his 'bells in the basement. Bratface whimpers quietly.

Poop's adam's apple starts bobbing up and down.

The suit shakes the white stuff onto the pizza, the flakes cascading down like so much dandruff off Pop's eyebrow.

Now he starts chowing down. "Say, Pop, this is great. Whattya got innit?"

Pop swallows his adam's apple, and throws a quick look at the kid, sitting there so cool, his lip curled like Elvis. The lengthening shadows from the street hide the fear in the old man's eyes.

"Secret recipe," he says.

"Well, rustle me up another slice and make it to go," says the suit. "I gotta friend. She live around the corner."

The kid smiles his knowing smile, his right arm working the stick shift on the boss '57 chevy twodoor hard-top, his echoing the powerful twin-carb V8 with dual exhausts.

Bratface rubs her eyes dry and takes a nickle out of her plastic change purse - the doofus one with the red piping and clear sides. It's her last nickle.

She hits C9 - Tall Paul, the most doofus record in the jukebox. But then, what else can you expect from a Bratface?

Outside, the rain is letting up on the mean streets.

The sun peeks out from behind a cloud over the Jamaica Lumber yard, throwing a whole new light on the situation.

Hev-Rob-Aree-Rob

The Alternative Federal Bt

Liberals in Ottawa are dancing to the tune of transnational corporations. The Conservatives before them, under Mulroney, started snapping their fingers to the tune, tapped their feet and got the basic steps of cut, slash and burn down, but the Liberals are really taking flight.

Okay, enough of the picture-painting. None of the dancing is coincidence; clearly the corporate agenda and continuous movement of public p o k y to the right, to cutbacks with no alternatives, layoffs with increased profits for large corporations (especially banks), taxes going unpaid by deferral or loopholes while politicians cry about lack of funds, the scapegoating of the unemployed and poor in the media with poor-bashing and warped reporting, tax and consumer fraud running rampant while headlines scream of insignificant welfare abuse... you're aware of this too.

The Liberals, with Paul Martin being the point man as Minister of Finance, brought in their budget and used the same tactic as last year passing measures into law now that won't come into effect until next year. Last year the Action Canada Network, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and CHO!CES, a coalition in Winnipeg, presented an alternative federal budget at the same time. It was so effective in showing the holes and direction of the Liberal's that it caused embarrassment for them across the counhy.

The alternatives, the sound ways to protect prowms, fbnd job creation, ease unemployment and straighten out the tax system also caused

extreme anger amongst top corporate owners.

They moved almost fast enough to stop the spread of the alternate ideas almost being the key word.

It got out and many people saw through the rhetoric of "no alternative" - media corporations (following orders) immediately made it non-news.

That was last year.

In February the Alternative Federal Budget was relead. It is called, A choice. FOP8 Change

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Putting people back to work.

This is the main goal. Stablejobs at decent wages will add much in tax revenue and help eliminate the fear and uncertainty of millions. The goal is to create 800,000 new jobs over the next two years. commit new funding to the construction of needed social and co-op housing invest in physical (e.g. roads & sewers) and social (e.g. child care and public access to the 'info-hwy') infrastructure encourage the government purchase of Canadian-made health care and computer products establish an Enterprise Development Bank to provide low-cost loans for job-creating business investment funded by a special tau on the more than $5 billion made in bank profits I ast year take steps to distribute available work more fairly, i.e. reducing the standard hours of work and discouraging overtime

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The tax deduction for lobbying expenses by corporations costs taxpayers $50 million a year.

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Since the last recession, corporate profits have increased by 102%; wages and salaries by 5 O h .

Building communities that work Social programs are not costs but investments in people and their communities. As the commentary of the alternatives carries on, the Liberal Canada Health and Social Transfer is utterly rejected. It is this CHST that is the biggest ax for all that we hold up with respect - medicare, post-secondary education and the many assistance programs. All must adapt with the times, but not be destroyed in a flurry of smoke and mirrors and deceit about the debt and deficit.

The Health Care Fund - renewing the federal commitment to and support of Medicare.

Conditional funding for provinces to develop community health centres; a National Drug Plan, in partnership with provinces, to ensure access to

The Retirement Income Fund - preserves and improves Old Age Security and CPP benefits The Unemployment insurance Fund - stabilizes the fund and makes more unemployed workers eligible for benefits The Child Care Fund - providing sufficient funds and structure for long-promised program The Housing Fund - commitment to and construction of needed social and co-oo housine Minister of Finance Paul Martin (who has avoided paying millions in taxes by registering his companies in foreign countries) has bragged that when their planned cuts to social programs kick in, federal socid spending will fall back to pre- 195 1 levels. Before 1951, Canadians had - no national medicare system - no national act or funds to support poor people -no national funding or support for post-secondary education or v e o ~ l erroinu to universitv or college

transnationnal companies making billions off of people's illnesses. In the last decade, spending on

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The lncome Support Fund restores and enhances the federal contribution to welfare and other income programs; also recognises need for recipients to have access to job-training The Post-Secondary Education Fund - enhance gov't part of fimding convert loans to grants, and especially enhance First Nations institutions

A fair tax system that works introduce a wealth tax on inheritances of over $1 million impose a minimum corporate tax increase the tax-rate for the highest-income individuals reduce taxes for low-income individuals

"Let the people of the new day, of the new sunrise, wake up in the new world." -P. R. Sarkar adjust the system to help preserve the environment crack down on tax cheats and begin collecting the $7.4 billion in back taxes owing Debt reduction lower interest rates to save billions now being paid to our own bank borrow more from Canadians and the Bank of Canada and less from foreign bond holders reduce the rising debt by putting people back to

too high, allowing corporations and banks to make billions while public programs are cut, slashed and - -

The complete Alternative Federal Budget is a 56page document. It is a wealth of extremely wellthought-out and viable ideas to get Canada back together and financially sound. There should be open debate on the merits of this work - should be BUT the AFB has received N O press this year. It was released at a well-attended press conference in Ottawa in February and not one media outlet, print or TV, carried one word about it.

We get front page news about Chretien assaulting someone, about Gordon Campbell charging $250a-plate for all his rich fnends and supporters to come and pig out and listen to him rant about the NDP. A fair view of other possibilities, even criticism of the direction and consequences of the Liberals. either in Ottawa or here in BC. is

something the owners of corporations and media don't want. Chretien is pictured as the saviour of Canada, with someone's 'polls' showing him as quite popular. There are also similar 'polls' showing Harris in Ontario and Klein in Alberta (and future polls here will say the same thing about Gordon Campbell) being just loved by everyone and their dog... and if you believe that I have a bridge for sale. from MONEY AND POWER by Jacques Ellul "...the rich look down on the poor and crush them not only economically and materially but also spiritually. They do this with contempt, with neglect and even with hatred."

"Ultimately the rich seek to kill the poor ... This happens because the rich are exasperated by constantly being called into question by God through the poor."

What can you and I do? call your MP and tell them what you think of the CHST and cuts of over $7 billion invite your MP to public events and ask them to explain the CHST... grill them 3 join with local actions (rallies, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns) 3 read, talk to others, learn as much as you can solidarity fasting, on any day or all week from March 25 to April 1 - Fast For Fairness 3

never @we

up

By PAULR TAYLOR